Eastern Horizons

Hitchhiking the Silk Road

By: Levison Wood

Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards

Levison Wood was only 22 when he decided to hitchhike from England to India through Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but he wasn't the conventional follower of the hippy trail. A fascination with the deeds of the early explorers, a history degree in the bag, an army career already planned and a shoestring budget of £750 - including for the flight home - he was determined to find out more about the countries of the Caucasus and beyond - and meet the people who lived and worked there.

Eastern Horizons is a true traveller's tale in the tradition of the best of the genre, populated by a cast of eccentric characters, from mujahedeen fighters to the Russian mafia. Along the way he meets some people who showed great hospitality while others would rather have murdered him....

©2017 Levison Wood (P)2017 Hodder Headline Limited

Critic reviews

"Levison Wood has breathed new life into adventure travel." (Michael Palin)

Some Strange Pronunciation... But Awesome

I love to travel, I've been on the road for over 20 years now on my very slow crawl to nowhere from nowhere special. I've lived in a dozen or more countries and visited many more. And yet, it still gives me a thrill to read (listen to) travel literature. I am particularly fascinated by Afghanistan and would love to visit the country if it weren't highly likely that they would shoot me on sight. So, I very much loved Eastern Horizons and standing in the shoes, metaphorically speaking, of another as they did just that. This is a witty and endearing account of low budget travel (something which does not appeal to me but which I do enjoy hearing about other people doing) in Asia. My only minor quibble is that the otherwise excellent narrator appears to have a limited vocabulary and whenever he encounters an unfamiliar word (not a foreign one, an English one) he makes a total hash of the pronunciation. It didn't ruin the book for me but it is jarring. Thumbs up, top notch stuff, indeed. Highly recommended.